Dance With Me
by something-like-love
Summary: Albus attempts to spend time with Gellert, and is, as always, thwarted by Ariana.


dance with me

"On!" Albus sighed at Ariana's insistent voice, which he had been hearing repeatedly for the last half hour, and begrudgingly switched on the old wireless radio that sat in the family's sitting room. Ariana laughed and peered at it, excitedly running her fingers over the knobs and buttons that it provided. Albus turned around and promised himself for the hundreth time that he would finish the laundry before Gellert came over. He stared longingly at his wand, so close but so out of reach on the kitchen table- for Ariana hated it when he used magic, and no matter how it appeared he hated to hear her cry when he did so, and as a result he had learnt to do many things to Muggle way. Folding laundry, washing dishes, cleaning the countertops (which he privately felt were woman's work and should be his sister's job).

"Stop running!" he yelled at Ariana, who was rushing back and forth from the wireless to the sofa. As she continued to do so, Albus heaved another great sigh and discreetly levitated the laundry basket into the sitting room where she was. Another subtle wave, and the music pouring forth from the radio was brought down several notches, though Ariana didn't seem to mind. 

"Dance," she giggled, twirling faster and faster in front of Albus, the pale yellow fabric of her dress rising and falling in time with her turns.

"Watch it," he warned, as her long tangles of hair nearly smacked him the face when she came too close. She nodded absently and continued her out of rhythm dance, occasionally pausing to watch him fold clothes. 

"Gellert?" she finally asked, slowing down as the song on the radio came to an end. Her chest was rising and falling steadily, and Albus made a mental note to buy her some more dresses when he got a chance. 

"Gellert what?" he prodded. 

"Gellert coming?" she corrected, her nose wrinkling at her brother's attempts to have her use proper grammar. Albus nodded to her.

"He'll be here in" -he looked to the clock and murmured a curse under his breath- "five minutes." Ariana beamed.

"Good Gellert." A new song began on the wireless, and Ariana forgot about her conversation as she became swept up in her dancing once more. This song was a more upbeat one than the last, and it took her on a journey through the kitchen. Albus tried to ignore the scuffle of her feet on the lineluem as the doorbell rang, signaling Gellert's perfectly punctual arrival several minutes later. 

"Hello," Albus said breathlessly, flinging open the door. 

"_Hallo, freund_," Gellert greeted, tipping his hat courteously. He stepped inside, out of the hot blaze of noonday sun, and Albus invited him to sit down, an offer which was graciously accepted. Just as Gellert leaned back on the sofa, his blond curls falling across his eyes lazily, Ariana ran back into the room, her hair held back with an askew ribbon that matched her dress. Albus had just reached over to turn off the radio, which was becoming irritating, but she slid past him and smacked his hand away before he could do so.

"No, no, Al," she said disapprovingly, and Gellert chuckled to himself. Albus frowned and grabbed her wrist as she skidded back around in front of him, perfectly in tune with the high crescendo the music reached.

"Must you run about all the time?" he asked her. 

"Yes, yes," Ariana said, nodding her head vigorously. "Dance, Al. Dance." She tried to pull him up from the sofa, but her tiny body could do nothing to his larger, stronger frame. 

"No, I'm not going to dance," he said to her. "I've told you that before. Could you please go do something else, Ari?" Irritably, Ariana blew a strand of hair out of her eyes (the ribbon had long since fallen out of her unruly tangles and had been shoved on one of the tables somewhere). Instead of leaving the room, however, she skipped over to Gellert and held her hands out.

"Dance?" 

"Ari, Gellert doesn't want to dance-" Albus began, but Gellert held up a hand to silence him, smiling up at Ariana with a kind of interested kindness. 

"Of course I will, _liebling_," he said, standing up and holding her hand lightly as she twirled. Albus watched them, unsure of why exactly Gellert was doing this in the first place. The next song came on the radio, this one even more loud and sweeping than the last, and Ariana twisted around and around with Gellert, laughing and, to Albus' surprise, blushing as she nearly tripped on the side table. 

"All done," she finally said, breathless again, sinking back into the warm confines of the sofa as the last long notes of the song faded away. "All done, Gellert. All done."

* * *

(a/n: what is up with the sudden influx of Dumbledore family fics? I first posted this at cupid-painted-blind's challenge community on LiveJournal a few months ago, and totally forgot about it until this morning :) A review would be appreciated!)


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